On June 13th 2012 I visited the set of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg‘s This is The End. After the jump you will find a list 35 things I learned while visiting the set, including how the project was put together and the many similarities and differences between the real life Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, and the versions of they play in the film.

This week’s second trailer forThis Is The End once again features what’s sure to be one of the better trailer moments this year: Michael Cera slapping Rihanna on the butt, and then her punching him in the face. In the red band trailer, that’s followed up with more of Cera’s true colors. In this all-ages version, things feel decidedly more tame, but no less funny. Both trailers together give us a great of idea of what to expect on June 12 when directors Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg bring together many of their funny, famous friends for a hard-R rated comedy about the end of the world.

Check out the green band trailer for This Is The End below. Read More »

We’ll be hearing arguments over which film really deserved the Best Picture Oscar for months, if not years, to come, but if the Razzie results are any indication there’s a firm consensus on which movie was the worst of 2012.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part II swept this year’s proceedings, as seven out of their record-tying eleven nominations turned into wins. Keep in mind that that’s eleven nominations out of ten categories — that’s how bad Razzie voters thought this thing was. That’s My Boy and Battleship got a little love (hate?) as well. Hit the jump to read the winners.

Having established himself as an in-demand actor, writer, and producer, Seth Rogen is now moving into directing. Or co-directing, to be more exact, with frequent collaborator Evan Goldberg. The pair recently began shooting their first directorial effort together, the apocalyptic comedy The End of the World. And while it remains to be seen just how they’ll do in their newfound role as co-helmers, it appears that their past work has allowed them to call in some favors and collect quite a cast.

Among the various stars set to populate the upcoming movie are Rogen himself, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Aziz Ansari, Rihanna, and many, many more.

The writing team of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have obviously made a bunch of talented friends writing films like Superbad, Pineapple Express and The Green Hornet. Many of those friends also happen to be huge movie stars and the pair, who’ll soon make their directorial debut with End Of The World, are calling in the cavalry.

The film, which was previously called The Apocalypse and is based on the short Jay and Seth vs. the Apocalypse, will star Rogen and Jay Baruchel as two friends in an apartment as the world ends. Cameos from James Franco, Danny McBride, Aziz Ansari, Jonah Hill and Craig Robinsonhave already been revealed and now several new names have been added to the list: Michael Cera, Jason Segel, David Krumholtz, Rihanna and Emma Watson.

The first three, much like the five before that, all make sense. Each of the actors have appeared in a previous project connected to Rogen or Goldberg. The last names though, Watson – best known as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films – and Rihanna, who’s acting debut Battleship opens later this month, seem a bit more out of left field. Especially since all of the above actors will be playing themselves. There’s more after the jump. Read More »

An abundance of booty shorts, bikinis and slow motion dancing haven’t exactly made the first five Fast and Furious movies girl-power milestones. However, Justin Lin‘s Fast and Furious 6/Fast Six looks like it might change that. The post-credits scene in Fast Five hints at the return of not one, but two of the franchise’s more empowering female characters. (Spoilers held for after the jump.) Additionally, Gina Caranois currently in talks for the film, and now one site clams hip-hop singer Rihanna might join the film in a villainous role. Read more after the jump. Read More »

On the one hand, Universal’s Battleship looks, frankly, kinda stupid. It’s an adaptation of a Hasbro toy, along the same lines as Michael Bay’s dumb (but occasionally fun) Transformers franchise, and early spots and footage did nothing to suggest it’d be anything more than an uninspired, cynical cash grab.

On the other, there’s some promising talent both in front of and behind the camera: Friday Night Lights director Peter Berg at the helm and his Friday Night Lights stars Taylor Kitsch and Jesse Plemons in the cast, plus Liam Neeson, Alexander Skarsgard, Hamish Linklater, and Liam Neeson. And while I wouldn’t go so far as to say the film looked smart, I respected that it seemed perfectly aware of what it was — mindless popcorn entertainment, no more and no less.

But all of that ambivalence was based more on the marketing team’s efforts than on the film itself. Now that the first early reviews are rolling out, however, we’re getting a much better sense of what, exactly, Berg is offering us next month. Read all about Battleship‘s early buzz after the jump.

Earlier this week at WonderCon, director Peter Bergrevealed that he’d taken inspiration for his new movie Battleship from an unlikely source: Stephen Hawking. Berg had been watching a documentary in which the iconic scientist discussed Goldilocks planets, so called because their distance from the sun is “just right” for sustaining life. NASA has been trying to send signals to those planets in an attempt to discover extra-terrestial intelligence, but according to Berg, Hawking believes this to be a terrible idea because aliens knowing of our existence can do just as much damage as good. Berg then spun that idea into the plot of the film.

Which sounds pretty interesting, but unfortunately, most of the trailers we’ve seen so far haven’t gone into much detail about the sci-fi storyline. So far, they’ve shown us who the characters are and what it looks like when Berg tries his best to be Michael Bay, but we’ve had no sense of what exactly the aliens are doing here. Now a new featurette focuses on just that, explaining what exactly a Goldilocks planet is and how the crew of the USS John Paul Jones find themselves to be defending our planet from vicious otherworldly visitors. Watch it after the jump.

I’ll be completely up front with you — I really have had no interest in the movie Battleship since it was announced. Even the recent action-packed Michael Bay-lite trailers didn’t win me over. I just didn’t see the point of making a big screen adaptation of the Battleship board game. And I also didn’t understand why an adaptation of that board game would involve an alien attack. It just didn’t make sense to me. Despite loving director Peter Berg‘s previous films and recently discovering the awesomeness of Friday Night Lights (the tv series), I just didn’t care.

When Peter Berg stepped onto the WonderCon stage in Anaheim, you could tell he was on a mission. Why a movie based on a board game? Why aliens? Berg made his pitch and somehow was able to change my mind — I now am excited to see this film.

Peter Berg never wanted to make a movie based on a board game. He wanted to make a naval movie but Hollywood wouldn’t let him.

Taylor Kitsch‘s John Carter may not quite have been the blockbuster hit that he and Disney were hoping for, but the star will take a second stab at leading a major action franchise when Peter Berg‘s Battleship hits this summer. Inspired by the Hasbro game, the film stars Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgard, Rihanna, and Liam Neeson as naval officers dealing with an otherwordly force that threatens to destroy our planet. The new trailer downplays the plotlines and character moments we glimpsed in earlier trailers, choosing instead to dive right in to expensive, explosive Transformers-style action. Watch it after the jump.